Ahrefs vs Unsplash

Ahrefs (BTW we use OCaml) and Unsplash (Building the internet's open library of freely usable visuals. Join us 👫) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Unsplash (rank #338) holds a narrow lead over Ahrefs (rank #401) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (43 vs 41). The gap of 2 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), Unsplash is ahead of Ahrefs. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Unsplash is ahead of Ahrefs. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Ahrefs is slightly ahead of Unsplash. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Unsplash is ahead of Ahrefs. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Ahrefs is clearly ahead of Unsplash.

Ahrefs carries 1,303 GitHub stars across 171 public repos, with 28 repositories active in the last 90 days and 7 external contributors on record. Unsplash shows 9,930 stars across 63 public repos, 3 active in the last 90 days and 3 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but Unsplash's footprint is roughly 7.6x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

Ahrefs is the stronger read for anyone weighting momentum. Unsplash looks better where reach is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.